We had another excellent dinner at Laurel and Sage. Besides the usual beet salad we also had the awesome pork belly appetizer. Mrs. P had the scallops and gnocchi in a chestnut crema. Since I had the pork belly appetizer I decided to go with a delicious vegetarian entree of green curry dahl, with cilantro rice, lentils, chickpeas, cauliflower, Thai basil, and eggplant. It all went great with a 2016 Domaine La Fourmone Gigondas.
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That beet salad ia speaking to me!
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Your Photos of your dining define eating with your eyes
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Thanks Rooster!
It’s a lot less calories when you eat with your eyes 
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True that!
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The roasted beet salad is very good. Mrs. P orders it every time. It contains various types of beets, (besides the normal red beets) as well as goat cheese, toasted pecans, and smoked bacon in a banyuls vinaigrette.
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Do you think ice wine would work well for the dressing? I have a bottle from Quebec on hand.
It might, but the banyuls vinaigrette went very well with the beet salad.
Our friend served an excellent 2006 Inniskillin cabernet franc ice wine, from Canada, with dessert last week.
Nice. I’m just wondering which type of dessert wine works best in the salad dressing. Too good to waste on the wrong type.
Yes, I would save the dessert wine for drinking 
The banyuls vinegar is a nice cross between balsamic and sherry with an underlying taste of walnuts and sweetness, which goes well with the candied pecans and bacon. Searching online the banyuls vinaigrette contains the following ingredients (I’m not sure if the Chef used the same combination).
- The Banyuls vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons Banyuls vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme
- 1/3 cup grapeseed oil, or other mild salad oil
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Much appreciated.
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We had another nice dinner at Laurel and Sage. Besides the usually excellent beet salad and scallops, we had the awesome foie steak with caramelized apples and cranberries, as well as the grilled Norwegian salmon steak in a brown butter bourbon beurre blanc with roasted acorn squash, and pepita encrusted asparagus. It all went great with an excellent Malbec.
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Good to see you getting back out there! I hope the recovery is going well.
That steak sounds pretty unique.
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Thanks Johnny! I hope you are making progress as well.
The steak foie was excellent. It was very rich and melted in your mouth. The caramelized apple went great with it and cut the fat.
We had another excellent dinner at Laurel and Sage. Besides the always excellent beet salad we shared a an awesome special appetizer of truffled gougeres stuffed with mushrooms in brown butter bourbon beurre blanc.
For entrees Mrs. P enjoyed a special of blackened swordfish in a BBQ beurre blanc sauce with sweet potato crabmeat hash. I enjoyed a special of braised fork tender pork butts, with polenta, watercress, and black oyster mushrooms. It all went great with a nice Gigondas wine.
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We had a bittersweet dinner at Laurel and Sage. We just found out that they are going to close next month (at the end of March) when their 5 year lease runs out. This has been one of our favorite restaurants but apparently they have been losing money the last few months, (although they were slammed tonight), and did not want to commit to another 5 years. They are just not making any business during the week (like most suburban restaurants), and the lack of a liquor license doesn’t help. So next month will be our last supper 
We started off with an outstanding seared hamachi with avocado, cilantro emulsion, and sriracha. For entrees I had the lamb shank with polenta, king oyster mushrooms, and cabbage and Mrs. P had the sea bass with the sauce on the side to keep the skin crispy. It all went great with an outstanding 2013 R&B Malbec.
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beautiful looking meal as most of your meals are Mr P. I’m sorry you guys have had a bad run as of late with some beloved spots calling it quits. I think it just goes to show how tough the margins are for places that make an effort to put out top notch food/service. I wonder if the extreme competition and lack of parking in Montclair and some other spots up north factor in as well. Montclair I could even see NYC playing a part as competition considering how quick a trip it is.
Meanwhile, places that load up on booze and mediocre generic stuff pack 'em in. Yes- I’m referring to the VikingJak theory perfected by a certain restaurant group in the Monmouth County area here.
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Thanks Mr. Met. Yes, I have lost three regular (2 favorite) restaurants in the last few months (Tillie’s, Laurel and Sage, and Costanera). It’s tough being a BYO restaurant in the suburbs. They lose money from not being able to sell liquor (which is where the huge markups are), plus nobody eats out during the week. They only make money on Friday & Saturday, but have to pay a full month’s rent. At least in Manhattan most of the restaurants have liquor licenses and restaurants are packed all week long.
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Hey Eli. Sorry to hear the bad news. I think we all have experienced this at some point, but you got the triple whammy. Hopefully one of the properties, or more, are reincarnated as something nice. Have you heard anything?
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Thanks Johnny. We were fortunate to find a few new restaurants to take the place of the ones that closed (Bloom, Bistro D’Azur, Il Nido, and Ammata Thai).
I just found out that Laurel and Sage is closing next month at the end of their lease, so it is really too soon to see if a new restaurant will be taking their place. At least we got 5 excellent years out of them.
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